


Stay Down

by silversilky



Category: BanG Dream! (Anime), BanG Dream! Girl's Band Party! (Video Game), Death Stranding (Video Games)
Genre: Action, Alternate Universe - Science Fiction, Drama, F/F, Funky Fetus - Freeform, Gen, Strandori, playing loose with the rules of the DS universe, scenes of intense mailman action, so it'll be more accessible if you haven't played the game
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2020-08-17
Updated: 2020-08-23
Packaged: 2021-03-06 03:54:39
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: Graphic Depictions Of Violence
Chapters: 3
Words: 17,305
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/25957072
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/silversilky/pseuds/silversilky
Summary: The packages weighing heavily on her back aren't going to transport themselves and her boots aren't going to start walking on their own anytime soon. She's got a hell of a lot of ground to cover before nightfall, especially accounting for any time spent avoiding potential threats. So instead of thinking she acts. She's good at that.One unflinching step out into the world and Ran Porter of C.I.R.C.L.E.S. is on her way.
Relationships: Aoba Moca/Shirasagi Chisato, Minato Yukina/Mitake Ran
Comments: 21
Kudos: 32





	1. Chapter 1

Waves lap at the edge of the sand slowly in a steady rhythm, the heart of the universe is beating even here. This is the sound Ran wakes up to.

  
Her eyelids flicker slowly as her lips settle into a deep frown that parts to let out a hiss as she stretches, letting her legs reach out to dig into the sand and leave long imprints. She reaches out with a weak hand and pushes herself up, grunting as she moves. The sun is low in the horizon over the water. She stares at it as she breathes slowly. Been a while since she had the Beach to herself, and a moment of rest on the other side is certainly always welcome. She'll be back in the world of the living soon enough.

  
Ran stands up and heads for the shoreline. Her feet crunch in the sand with each step, and as she gets closer she has to start weaving carefully around small pieces of driftwood and detritus that the tide has gifted her. Further down is the lifeless body of a whale. It's still and gray and the light bends around it strangely. She has to put effort into tearing her eyes away from it.

  
As the water comes in, it washes over her up to her ankles. It isn't cold, but it's certainly not warm either--and it doesn't feel like water should. It's like liquid air. It tickles a little as Ran takes another step into it. She wraps her arms around herself tight.

  
Her back feels so much lighter now without the unending strain of luggage piled high on it, she's almost forgotten the feeling of proper rest. Ran grimaces as she carefully rubs her aching forearms. Maybe this is why she got the Beach tonight instead of a quickly fading dream, maybe the world decided to give Ran Porter a break for once. It's a nice thought. She'll catch her breath here before she wakes again.

  
...

  
There's a song somewhere far, far in the back of Ran's mind. She can't put a name to it, it's a long-faded memory, but she remembers the tune and some of the words. Her lips part to whisper it to the wind softly as the waves crash before her.

  
_"See the sunset... the day is--"_

* * *

Ran wakes up with a sharp breath that sends chilled air into her lungs.

  
...Fuck.

  
She's barely any more rested than when she went into the Beach, or for that matter when she slumped down here and let her consciousness slip away. Her black hair flutters in the breeze gently. The equipment pack is so heavy on her shoulders--she must have been too tired to remember to unhook the straps before she fell asleep. Damn. She reaches up with gloved hands to roughly shove her head to the side, hearing a loud clicking sound from her neck that's as alarming as it is viscerally satisfying. She shakes her head after to try and clear the haze from her eyes.

  
Ran groans, and to her mild surprise there's a response. A quiet gurgle that comes from the canister attached onto her chest. She leans down to see its little face staring up at her curiously. "Hey, BB," she says as she gives the glass a tap with her index finger, staring through it to the pleased baby inside. A happy noise from her most valuable piece of equipment. Well, at least it's feeling rested. Good thing too, 'cause the air's feeling off. She might need a BB unit sooner rather than later.

  
The hematic grenades are all gone--should have grabbed more before she left but there's no use complaining now--so without BB's warnings she'll be a goner if any invisible BTs end up ambushing her. For now, the mechanical radar arm attached via cords and cables to her BB's tank stays in place folded back into itself, tucked into a slot on the shoulder of her suit. She hopes it'll stay that way.

  
Ran gets to her feet with more than a little work, grunting all the way as she uses the side of the cave as a convenient handhold and a place to lean on. Once she's up she does a few preliminary stretches and then reaches down to grab the cargo she carefully--more or less--stacked by her side overnight. This case can go on her arm, the rest will have to balance on the platform strapped to her back. She strains a little as she adjusts the straps. Hey, it's not too bad. At least this shit's all durable. Last time she had to deliver a whole case of pastries to some jerk out in the middle of nowhere who wasn't even home when she finally made it out to them. Who knew those things were so vulnerable to the elements?

  
"You ready to head out, BB?" she asks for the hell of it as she finishes attaching a folded-up prefab ladder to the open slot on her hip. No response. Why's she wasting time talking to herself? Can't start getting sentimental now, that's not a porter's job.

  
She steps outside of the cave and squints, grimacing in the light and raising a hand to block out the sun while she adjusts to it. Must have slept a hell of a lot longer than she expected to. Well, nothing to it but to keep on keeping on. All the client cares about is that it gets there in one piece, if it's there early that's great but with the dangers out on the road that's generally a pipe dream.

  
One unflinching step out into the world and Ran Porter of C.I.R.C.L.E.S. is on her way.

  
The Central Institution for Reconstructing Cities, Leaders in Environmental Science. Godawful name, in Ran's opinion, but very few people care about her opinion so she keeps the words under her tongue whenever she ends up speaking to one of their reps. She's just another porter, her job is to shut up and move things. She's good at the latter and improving on the former.

  
One step in front of the other. Her boot crunches on something, either a clump of dirt or a barely-formed chiral crystal, either way it's not worth worrying about. Ran keeps moving until the deep valley she's in starts to open out into a wide expanse of green and gray, a field that stretches until her eyes are straining to see the hills on the other side and the white-capped peaks that rise up to follow them. If she had a bike right now she'd be feeling relieved--what a perfect driving path!--but she had to abandon it miles back, all out of charge and Ran without a PCC to make a generator for it. So she's gonna be walking this one.

  
This route isn't exactly familiar. Normally, she would go much further south to end up at the distribution center she's headed towards, but that area's no good these days. Not after what happened to Middle Knot City. That blast crater is probably filled shoulder-to-shadowy shoulder with ghosts--BTs. You couldn't pay Ran enough for her to go within a mile of it, and she's certainly not getting paid enough as it is to go within ten. So this uncharted area will be her new path. That is, if it's safe enough.

  
Another gurgle. Ran looks down to see BB staring up at her with a little smile on its face. If she didn't know better, she'd think it was trying to encourage her. 'Don't give up,' its expression says. But she's just projecting that onto it, anthropomorphizing something barely more aware than an embryo. A BB unit is not a child. Not any more than a ladder is a friend or Minato is--

  
Ran grits her teeth and doesn't finish that thought.

  
The packages weighing heavily on her back aren't going to transport themselves and her boots aren't going to start walking on their own anytime soon. She's got a hell of a lot of ground to cover before nightfall, especially accounting for any time spent avoiding potential threats. So instead of thinking Ran acts. She's good at that.

  
As she walks she keeps an eye out all around for Mule sensor beacons. There shouldn't be much danger here, the flat landscape makes it obvious there aren't any encampments nearby, but she can't be too careful. She's lost one too many packages to let her guard down while she's on the move. Dodging truckloads of Mules isn't on her schedule for today. Or ever, really, but she can't always pick her fights in advance.

  
Ran clambers up a small rise in the terrain, boots finding purchase in the soft earth on the side and pushing her up as she swings herself around to get over the edge of the miniature cliff. Pebbles and stray dirt cascade down the side of it in her wake as she stands back up to her full height and bends down to roughly brush her pants off. As she finds her balance she gives the path again a look--and quickly scowls. Tall grass is rarely a good sign and there's a hell of a lot of it in front of her.

  
She keeps moving anyway. Once she gets to it she pushes her way through carefully, moving a little more slowly to keep an eye out. It comes up to about her waist and leaves dirty green streaks on her jumpsuit as the stalks drag against her with her every step forward. Crushing grass underfoot, Ran walks on.

  
And then there's a sound in the air, behind and above her. One she hasn't heard in a long time. A high-pitched melody, simple notes tinkling out onto the breeze.

  
It doesn't take long for Ran to spot it with a hand raised to shade her eyes from the sun. Wheeling and turning, rising upward only to dive again, it's a familiar sort of small brown bird with a speckled belly. She can't remember its name but she's definitely seen it before, years and years ago. It's not like they're extinct. But it's rare that she'll see one out in the open that had the good sense to avoid timefall rain for this long.

  
"Good for you," she finds herself muttering as she watches it fly away, "Guess you're one of the smart ones." What does that make Ran, way down here on the ground? Best to not think too hard about it for now.

  
Scoffing at herself, she takes another step forward--

  
_BWOMMMMMMMM_

  
Every muscle in Ran's body tenses up as her eyes go wide. Darting her gaze around wildly she finds it sticking up half an inch out of the grass--an orange-tipped sensor beacon. She just tripped it. Fuck. Fuck fuck fuck.

  
How close are they, should she make a break for it or hide or try to fight? Ran reaches back into her things and finds jack shit that would be of any use. Her bola gun broke a week ago and she was too stupid to print a new one at the last outpost she visited. God dammit! Worst comes to worst she can hold her own in a fistfight, but that's a worst case scenario.

  
The ground is rumbling under her feet. There's a truck coming. For a second she considers the option of hiding more seriously, but the grass isn't tall enough and she left a clear trail through it anyway.

  
She'll have to run.

  
Ran takes off in a dead sprint, grabbing the straps of her pack and yanking them to hold it tighter to her body as she throws herself forward with as much momentum as she can gather, head down and shoulders straining. There's a loud, blaring honk somewhere to her left as the truck draws closer. They'll be able to see her by now. She shifts her path to the right as much as she can while still heading for a tall, uneven outcropping of rock in the distance that stands near the hills. She can catch her breath around the other side and then lose them in the treeline past that point.

  
_"Hey!"_ comes a faint shout, _"Over that way!"_ If they're close enough for her to hear their cries that's not a good sign. Ran risks a reflexive look over her shoulder to see the truck stopped, with several men climbing off the sides and out of the back to head towards her in a pincer formation. She grits her teeth. Her boots slam into the ground hard with every lunging step.

  
Out of the corner of her eye she sees one yellow-suited attacker coming at her from the left side and looking to get a hit in with his electric spear. In the span of a second she runs through her options and lands on one, wrenching the cargo attached to her leg off its holster and swinging it as heavily as she can to build up momentum before heaving it towards him. It slams into the side of his head and he goes down hard, tripping forwards and rolling along the dirt into the grass, spear sticking up out of it like a monument to his failure. For a brief moment she feels something like a sense of triumph.

  
The dirt beside her explodes up into a brown and green spray, and a millisecond later a sound like a thunderclap hits her eardrums. Ran's breath catches in her throat. That's--no, they can't be--that's live ammunition, even Mules shouldn't be stupid enough to pull something like that!

  
Another explosion to her right sends dirt cascading over her as she reels away from the impact zone. Alright. Alright alright just--it seems like only one of them has a gun, so just keep running and just--just pray he keeps on missing. Or that if he gets a bead on her it hits the cargo instead of ripping through her leg or anything else.

  
Cold sweat rolls down Ran's brow as her joints scream under the strain of constant movement. She's halfway to the outcropping now and the BB's cries are droning louder in her ears. The shots must be pushing its stress levels way too high but she can't worry about that right now--

  
Another explosion, dangerously close this time, just before the deafening sound of the shot knocks her own brain even further into panic mode as well. What are they doing!? Are these even Mules?

  
_BOOM!_

  
A horrible sound of twisting metal makes Ran cry out from shock, it's right next to her ear. She twists her head to the side to see its source--the radar arm is outstretched and bent back, small bursts of electricity coming from exposed wiring where the joint of one panel has been halfway knocked out. The others look intact, but the one in question is deformed and nearly detached.

  
There's a bullet squarely embedded in its center.

  
Ran blinks at the sight. Then another explosion of dirt and chaff bursts up beside her and she throws it out of her mind.

  
There's a shallow river coming up. She leaps into it as far as she can, landing about halfway through with a splash that's quickly accompanied by another shot and another bullet that twists and twirls through the water beside her, leaving a white-hot trail of steam behind it as it goes. She thrashes her way to the other shore and climbs out onto the bare stones on the other side, getting her footing as fast as possible before she sends herself forward again.

  
Almost there. She's so fucking close she can make out the crevices in the stone of the outcropping. A natural shield just for her.

  
She can't hear her attacker's cries anymore, she must have outpaced them at some point. Can't outpace a bullet as easily but it's something. Ran ignores the pain in her knees and her shoulders to weave as she runs, avoiding one more shot that arcs past her and hits the dry stone to kick up a cloud of debris.

  
Her boots skid on the dirt as she makes it around the outcropping, one last burst of adrenaline sending her sliding across the grass and slipping onto her side as she lies on the ground. She reaches up to cover her mouth and muffle the sound of her own heavy panting breaths to focus on the sound of her attackers, surely still right on her heels. She'll need to force herself up so she has some chance of winning in a fistfight, and she grits her teeth as she prepares to move...

  
...but there's nothing. No more gunshots, no hurried footsteps approaching her location. And after a long moment she hears the sound of the truck again. It sounds like it's driving away.

  
Ran takes a deep, shuddering breath. Her eyes flutter closed for a moment as she lies motionless, her chest heaving and her aching legs splayed out on the ground. She moves a hand up to rub her eyes roughly.

  
What the hell... what the hell was that?

  
Whatever it was, they really don't seem to want to follow her too far out. Maybe they're trying not to stray outside of the outer range of their sensor beacons--somewhere on that open plain they must have a carefully camouflaged home base. They won't want to risk any sort of invasion from another group while they're running after a single porter.

  
Deep breaths. Steady breaths. Ran grunts as she slowly pushes herself up into a sitting position, back straight up against the sheer rock to keep herself stable. She stretches her legs out in front of her carefully and leans back.

  
She turns her gaze up to the sky. No rainbows right now, that's some relief at least. Just a dull gray-blue without a cloud in sight. There are no birds here. The one she spotted was an anomaly.

  
A quiet gurgle makes her slowly tilt her head down to wearily stare at the baby in the canister. Her BB puts its tiny hand up against the glass and floats through the orange fluid, staring back at her with those tender brown eyes. Ran exhales. "Hey..." she says quietly, reaching up to jostle the broken radar arm, "...did you block that shot for me?"

  
Gurgle. Bubbles come to the surface of the liquid as her BB stares back at her. She could swear that there's a little smile on its face now, something like an affirmative reply. But that's insane--the arm must have just malfunctioned or something. A lucky break. Ran doesn't usually get those, maybe she's just reaching for reasons why the world let her go this once.

  
_WRRRuuUUAAH._ The synth tone breaks through her thoughts and heralds a video call on the communicator attached to her cuffs. Ran looks down, staring at it for a moment. Then she hits the accept button.

  
"--orter, can you hear me? Reception's a little spotty th-- _zzzzzt_ \--ar out, what with the chiral network still spread so thin in that area." The hologram flickers, and the mousy woman depicted in it adjusts her glasses as she fiddles with some piece of equipment on her end. "I th-- _zzt_ \--k I've got it working well enough. Do you read me?"

  
"I hear you, Maya," Ran replies flatly. Her eyes wander and end up focusing on the ground on the other side of the hologram, not bothering to watch her caller's expression.

  
It's easy to guess why she's getting such an urgent message and Maya confirms it for her in a tentatively worried voice. "I'm getting some, er, alarming readings--your BB just had a stress spike through the roof. How's it doing now? Levels have gone down, but there's no way to tell everything through numbers and graphs alone..." She laughs, more at her own expense than anything. "Fuhehe, not that I'll stop trying."

  
Ran looks down again to watch the BB float in its tank. She taps on the glass for the hell of it and listens to it laugh. "Seems perfectly functional to me now. We had a run-in with some guys, but they're gone now. That's probably what you saw."

  
"Guys? You mean Mules? We haven't had any reports in that area lately, I'll need to inform the boss if that's the case."

  
"...Yeah," Ran says, "must've been Mules. They took some potshots at us and nearly knocked out the BB's arm." She reaches around to move the radar arm back and forth--thankfully, it seems to still be mostly functional. Hanging by a thread, maybe, but she won't be completely out to dry if her string of shit luck continues.

  
"Shots?" The hologram's face draws uncomfortably close as Maya stares at her. "You mean they were using lethal ammunition? We've heard about some terrorists further west, but if they're moving out here..." A pause and a subtle intake of breath. "I don't like it. And neither does the poor BB. Please keep an eye on its stress levels if things start to get hairy again, if it doesn't get a chance to calm down you could lose it for good to autotoxemia. In that case I could get you a replacement, of course, but I shouldn't have to tell you that it's a bad idea to be without a BB while you're so far out in the field."

  
"I know that, Maya. I'll be careful." Reaching out to end the call, Ran waits a second in case Maya's got anything more to add.

  
"...Good luck, Porter." The hologram gives her a little self-serious nod as she reaches up to adjust her glasses. "You're doing important work out there. Remember that."

  
The call ends and Maya's projection disappears with an electronic blip.

  
Groaning, Ran stretches her arms out and steadies her back. There's still plenty of time before she needs to get to the distribution center--and, though under duress, she did just cover a lot of ground quickly--so Ran decides she can afford to give herself a break. Hey, it's for the BB's sake too. Get those stress levels down for both of them. She sets herself an alarm on her cuffs. Twenty minutes, then she's up and off again into the trees and towards her destination.

  
Lying her head back against the stone and forcing her tired eyes shut for just a moment, Ran wonders what would happen if she let herself sleep; if she would dream or if she would just find herself yet again stranded on the Beach.

* * *

Waves lap at the edge of the sand slowly in a steady rhythm, the heart of the universe is beating even here. But this isn't Ran's Beach. And she's not here right now.

  
A woman stands at the water's edge in a low-cut red dress, water soaking its hem slowly as she stays perfectly motionless and still. One arm is at her side and the other is raised to rest against her chest over her heart. She stares out onto the horizon as her long golden hair is gently pulled to the side by the steady breeze, exposing the side of her neck. It's a scene straight out of a painting.

  
"Heyyyyy, babe. Come here often?"

  
Boots leave deep imprints in the sand as the intruder to the dream moves forward. This second woman's hands are in her pockets as she hunches forward, hood concealing her face. A black and yellow cloak billows out behind her. "Sorry to keep you waiting, my boys had to give me a report that ran a little long..." She reaches up to grab her mask--a skull's jaw, made of gold chiralium--and twists it with a dull click to pull it off her face. Her hand dangles with the macabre piece held loosely between her thumb and index finger. "So, Miss Shirasagi, what's the deal?"

  
Chisato Shirasagi turns her head just enough for their gazes to meet. The look pierces into her like a needle. "I need you to inject a little more fear into the world for me. You don't mind, do you, Moca Aoba?"

  
"Not in the slightest, ma'am," Moca says as she leans into an exaggerated bow, cloak rustling as she lifts her arm up to accentuate the gesture. "Any requests in particular? We could play the hits and go for another bombing... Port Knot City, maybe. A couple of well-placed blasts there would send the whole supply chain right down the sink." She lifts her mask up and bobs it up and down like a boat slowly sinking into the ocean. "Glug, glug, glug... donk." Her eyes flick up. "That's it hitting the ocean floor."

  
"I understood the metaphor." Chisato turns away from her again to stare out at the waves coming in, one after the other in an endless cycle. She lets out a long breath. Then she turns on a dime, dress flaring out and thin high heels stabbing into the sand and leaving long slices behind as she makes her way to Moca. "But I've got something more specific in mind."

  
"What's that?" Moca asks slowly as Chisato leans in close. Her gaze drifts down to the woman's nape, unable to look at her face clearly. The ridges of the mask dig into her fingertips as she holds it tighter. "Your every little wish is my command. You know I'm your faithful pup~."

  
A slender, cool hand reaches out to barely stroke her chin and gently--but still forcefully--tilt her head up straight to look Chisato in the eyes properly. "There's a porter that's of some interest to me. I want you to give her a test. You can do that well enough, can't you?" Chisato's expression shifts subtly to something softer and more indulgent, her eyes narrow. "Her trajectory should be of interest to you as well, she's headed straight for your old associate as we speak. Two birds with one stone... all you have to do is throw it."

  
Moca nods slowly, her lady's hand still hovering around her chin and brushing against her cheek with the movement, an electric touch that sends shivers down her spine. For both their sakes she won't show how much she wants for it to stay. "Consider it done."

  
Chisato moves her arm back and steps away, turning as Moca finally takes a breath. She walks back towards the shoreline of the Beach and clasps her hands behind her back as her thin dress flaps in the wind and the light frames her in gold and white. A vision of deceptive fragility. Moca doesn't dare take a single step closer as Chisato speaks to herself. "It's coming... closer by the day, I can practically feel it. I wonder if they're starting to see it, too."

  
"..." Moca doesn't reply. She just raises her mask to her face and re-attaches it with another clicking sound, drawing her cloak tighter around herself as the breeze intensifies. After a moment of silence she decides to push. Just a little. "So... what's my reward if I do this right?"

  
Slowly, Chisato turns back, and when she does her eyes have changed. There's something like amusement in them. Moca doesn't see her close the distance but in a breath there she is right in front of her, and then the other woman is leaning in close--her lips brush up against the skeleton teeth of Moca's mask and she feels her heart rapidly thumping in her chest, so loud Chisato must be able to hear it too. "I'll be waiting for you on the Beach."

  
Waves crash. Red sunlight streams from behind Chisato's back and frames her with a hazy aura as Moca stares, and with no small effort eventually nods.

  
A whisper on the wind is the final word. "Have some fun before the end, pet." And then like a sheet quickly drawn over a bird's cage the Beach is blasted away into darkness. Only the sound of waves and the echo of her lady's voice remains as Moca drifts back towards the world of the living.

  
...Have fun, huh?

  
Under the mask, Moca grins as her heart rate stabilizes. She's good at that. Let's see if this porter knows how to play Moca's games.


	2. Chapter 2

It looks like a tomb from a distance, and when Ran gets closer that first impression doesn't change much. A monument of gray and black, triangular and massive, jutting up out of the green terrain like someone cut a slice out of another building and left it behind. It's ugly as sin... but the distribution center is a welcome sight.

  
_"Beginning scan. Scanning C.I.R.C.L.E.S. ID. Verifying ID..."_ The synthesized voice drones on over the speakers as Ran makes her way to the main entrance, wearily climbing up the small set of stairs to reach the ramp that will take her down to the center's loading bay. The promise of imminent relief puts just enough energy in her stride to keep her moving. Blue lights slip over her like a thin film as she descends, and streams of compressed air follow _. "Decontaminating suit..."_

  
_"All clear. Welcome, Ran Porter Mitake."_

  
Every step echoes through the cavernous hall, gray concrete and metal roof looming far above with rails and pipes criss-crossed through it, lined with spotlights that aren't quite sufficient enough to blot out the shadows at the edges of the space that hide behind parked trucks and stacks of packages. To the left of the entrance lies Ran's actual destination, a small terminal that sits alongside a conveyor belt.

  
She approaches it as the BB makes a sound like a bubbling giggle--Ran could almost think it's happy for her. Reaching up to grab the straps of her bag she unhooks them and hoists it off, lowering it to the ground in front of the conveyor belt. With an exhausted hand she taps to activate the terminal. As it's booting up, she starts the work of lifting each individual piece of cargo onto the belt and giving it a last-minute check. It's almost a miracle none of it was hit in the chaos earlier. Good thing her attacker had such shit aim.

  
"Hey, Ran," comes the voice from above her as the terminal's hologram projector kicks in and the center's boss shows up with a cocky grin on her holographic approximation of a face. "Nice going. I didn't expect you here for another day or two at least."

  
Ran grunts and tosses the last case onto the stack. In her opinion that's more than enough of a reply in this situation but her employer scowls, disappointed.

  
"Nothing? Damn, you're cold sometimes. I thought we were friends." She runs a hand through her long red hair, scoffing as she turns away with her other hand on her hip. "Go ahead and send it through so I can give it a look, then. I was with my wi--business partner. She's waiting for me." A little fang bares itself as she smiles wolfishly. "We were in the middle of a business meeting."

  
Flipping the switch to activate the belt, Ran nods and the cargo is methodically whisked away. She decides to give the woman a heads-up before she gets chewed out. "...It's missing a case. Had some trouble on the way here. You know you've got Mules pretty close by, right, Tomoe? Real bad ones. Aggressive types."

  
"What?" Tomoe looks genuinely taken aback. "We haven't--" She looks down as the packages arrive, then back up at Ran. "I'm gonna need to hear about that in detail. For now, let me give the rest of these a check."

  
The rest of their conversation blurs together, pleasantries and protocols and routines blending together into a slurry of lost time that Ran could have spent alone in her bed, on the Beach or in the empty moments of a dreamless slumber. She nods when she needs to, accepts her payment and gives Tomoe the details of her encounter. And as soon as the hologram blinks out--with a final wink from the other woman--she's already unlocking a private room down below through the terminal.

  
Standing in the center of the bay's main elevator, the circular platform descends and rotates slowly under her feet with a deep mechanical rumble. Ran uses that sliver of free time to stretch her arms behind her head, hearing a click from each shoulder as she does. BB is asleep now, it seems. Good for it.

  
Ran enters the room and taps to slide the door behind her with a muted pneumatic hiss as it locks. It's the same as every other room she's ever been in but that's a good thing right now, sterile familiarity is what she's looking for. She hooks the BB's canister onto its slot on the opposing wall and darkens the glass to let it continue to rest. Then she eyes the shower. She should really take some time to get cleaned up... but for now she'll settle for allowing her spent body to fall back onto the bed, nearly slamming her head into the wall behind her but twisting to make sure all of her makes contact with the sheets, just padded enough to be somewhat comfortable. Ahhhhhh.

  
A porter's life is one lived in the cracks, the fleeting moments when she can slip away out of the relentless flow and catch her breath. Ran inhales deeply. She--

  
_Bwoooosh._

  
A sound like an implosion, a distortion of the atmosphere of the room as air is displaced and chiral matter floats from the epicenter of the disturbance. Footsteps click against the floor as its cause stalks towards Ran's bed.

  
She doesn't bother looking up even as her brow furrows. There's only one person she knows who can teleport like that--spacial jumps aren't most people's specialty--and a metallic creak tells her the unwelcome guest's rose-shaped umbrella has been folded and set aside. "Minato. Do you mind giving me some kind of notice before you just show up here? I could have been in the shower or something."

  
"I would have averted my gaze and waited for you to finish, in that case." Yukina stares down at her with blank silver eyes. Ran stares back defiantly and makes no effort to look the slightest bit presentable, uniform still smeared with dirt and muck from the journey and black hair fanned out around her head over the sheets. They make eye contact for a long moment before she speaks again. "You delivered the medication ahead of schedule. Well done."

  
Medication? Was that what Ran was carrying? These days, she hardly bothers checking anything on the terminal besides the cargo's weight and destination before hitting the button to accept it. "I'm good at my job," she says, and it might be true.

  
"Quite. Roselia Express always appreciates your help as a freelance member, as does C.I.R.C.L.E.S., I assume." Yukina turns away, the shoulders of her black faux-leather jacket making her look almost imposing for a person so small and slender. Pulling a tiny, wriggling cryptobiote bug out and tossing it into her mouth--replenishing blood cells from the strain of making a jump, Ran knows this, but it still turns her stomach a little to watch--Yukina reaches out to the BB's tank and strokes the opaque glass.

  
"So, have you reconsidered my offer yet?" she says so plainly and bluntly that Ran almost chokes. She expected it to be brought up again, sure, but with at least a little tact... maybe that's expecting too much from Yukina Minato, head of her own shipping empire and a person with far, far better things to do than indulge Ran's tender ego.

  
"You've got plenty of other freelancers on hand to go after and snap up for yourself," she retorts back as she slowly forces herself up into a hunched-forward sitting position on the side of the bed, "so why go for me? You know I'm somebody else's dog already."

  
"I'm not looking for a dog, and if you were one I wouldn't bother looking at you twice," Yukina replies with a strangely offended tone. "You're simply a useful person to have around. Ensuring I am always surrounded by useful people is a good business strategy. That's all."

  
"..." Ran bites her lip. Why does that logical dismissal piss her off so much? Minato's the one barging into her room at all hours of the evening, so she should just admit there's something else--"I'm not joining."

  
"That's a pity."

  
The flatness of the response only makes Ran's blood boil that much more. She stands up and moves across the room to where Yukina stands in front of the BB unit. "That's mine. Don't mess with it," she says as she reaches out to grab the other woman's wrist and pull her hand away from the glass, maybe a little more roughly than she intended to. Ran glares, making no attempt to stamp down the sparks that are flaring up in her chest.

  
"Did you expect me to force you into joining? I'm not that cold." Yukina just stares at her, silver eyes regarding her plainly. "And I wouldn't have taken you of all people to be the sort who gets attached to their BB."

  
Gasoline on the flame and Ran burns. "That's not--!"

  
_GRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRUUUUUUUUUUUUUMMMMMMMBBLLLLLLLLEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEE_

  
The center's floor shakes wildly under them, knocking Ran off-balance and sending her stumbling forwards. Hands dart out and grab her shoulders to hold her steady--Yukina's back is up against the wall, she's pushing herself against it with her legs so she won't fall. Equipment falls from the walls and clatters to the ground in heaps, sliding across the floor as it rolls back and forth. Glass cracks and shatters, metal shrieks. And then as quickly as it came the shaking stops and the ground below them is stable again.

  
Ran takes a deep breath. She blinks wildly. And then she steps back, yanking herself out of Yukina's grasp. She looks around as if the source of the quake will appear in her room, and eventually she realizes her hands are shaking.

  
Yukina pushes away from the wall, brushing off her jacket with an annoying amount of poise still left in her. She stares at Ran. "That was... there are no fault lines in this region. That wasn't natural."

  
Right on cue, the center's alarms all seem to go off at once, a synchronized blaring as the lights dim and flicker. There's something wrong in the air--before Ran can even say it Yukina confirms her suspicions. "I can feel it, there's something wrong with the chiral density." She wraps her arms around herself tightly as her eyes narrow. "Something's here."

  
"What, BTs?" Ran asks with a knee-jerk sort of disbelief that turns into a creeping fear as the idea starts to feel more real. But BTs don't attack humans like that. Not normally, at least...

  
Yukina's gaze finds her and holds firm. An unspoken request.

  
Ran knows exactly what Yukina's thinking and she wants no part of it. But despite that, she finds herself biting her lip and looking around the room for the things she needs. Hematic grenades--two cases of them have fallen and made their way to her bedside--and the BB unit. She detaches it from the wall and slots it back into the space on her chest, hooking it up. The radar arm unfolds, still more or less functional even with one finger uselessly flopping down. It lights up spins wildly, beeping and whirring to confirm what she already knows. There's something wrong and it's all around them.

  
Not sparing a glance at Yukina she heads right to the elevator corridor. When she reaches its control panel she slams her fist into it, and a few seconds later she's rewarded with a horrible sound of screeching metal, followed by silence and a distinct lack of elevator. The quake must have taken it out.

  
She knows the solution right away, as much as she hates to admit it. Judging by Yukina's expression the other woman does too. Ran lets out a deep sigh and steps closer. "Send me up."

  
"You're fine with that?"

  
Ran grimaces. "No. But do it anyway."

  
Cool hands rest lightly on her shoulders for the second time. Yukina leans in close to her and closes her eyes tight as the air around them crackles, energy building as the rose-shaped umbrella floats to her side and unfolds to open above the pair. And then--

  
_Bwoooosh._

  
\--the world changes around her.

  
It's storming outside the center's main entrance, and the wind hits her like a slap to the face. Timefall rain plummets down to the ground below and plant life begins to grow on impact--but it's quickly drowned, not by water but by murky black oil. The slick fluid grows up out of the earth and expands to fill the area all around the building, debris filling the empty space like stars in a pitch-black sky. The sound of another teleportation is barely audible behind her. Ran watches the scene before them both with wide eyes as her hood automatically rises up to protect her from the rain.

  
Ran turns to Yukina. "Minato, is this--!?" When she sees Yukina's face she stops and trails off. The woman looks like she's seen a ghost. Or maybe something worse. Her lips draw back unconsciously as she bares her teeth.

  
"It's her."

  
"Who?" Ran asks, but Yukina doesn't answer. Her gloved fingers contract into a fist. The BB is awake now and it's crying, the sound drowned out by relentless impacts of raindrops against the oil. "What the hell is going on here? I want some kind of answer, Minato, or--!"

  
She doesn't get to finish that empty threat. Yukina disappears right in front of her in another _Bwoooosh_ and a puff of chiral matter, and Ran twists to find her out in the middle of the black expanse, umbrella raised to protect against the rain. The oil slows down Yukina's light footsteps as she moves towards...

  
...who is that?

  
There's someone out there, standing in the middle of it all. A hooded figure. As Ran watches they raise a hand like a greeting to Yukina. She's too far away to hear their conversation.

  
But she doesn't miss when Yukina pulls a small pistol out and points it straight at their head.

  
_BANG!_

  
The shot rings out like a thunderclap and Ran's BB lets out a wailing cry in response, but Yukina's target just isn't there anymore, and-- _Bwoooosh_ \--suddenly there's something new blocking Ran's view, a black and gold phantom filling her field of vision and making her jump back instinctively. A shining half-skull is below the low, tattered hood, and it takes her a second to recognize it as a mask.

  
There's a sort of swagger in their stride as they walk closer, hunched forward with their hands on their hips. "Hey there, Porter. Name's Moca," they say before stretching back up to their full height, just that much taller than Ran. "Sorry for the disturbance. I'm sure you were looking forward to getting some rest after all that work, weren't you?" There's just enough of their eyes visible that Ran can tell there's a shark grin plastered on the face under the mask. "Delivering alllll that medicine just like a good dog, Roselia should thank their lucky stars that they have you around. I'm sure they need all the help they can get these days..."

  
Ran can feel every inch of her body, tense and ready to move at a moment's notice. Frozen in place until her fight or flight instinct tells her to go. Her hand drifts down to one of the cases of grenades and they seem to notice it right away. "Oh, no, no. We're just having a friendly conversation, aren't we? No need for violence."

  
_Bwoooosh._ They're gone from her vision, and a breath hits her shoulder as chiral matter floats around them both. "There's a proper time and a place for that." A hand reaches out and takes hold of the BB's outstretched radar arm, thumb stroking the broken finger around where the bullet impacted it. "I see you've already met my boys. They might be a little trigger-happy, too--maybe that's where you and ol' Yuki got it from. I'll need to discipline them better once all this is over with."

  
The BB cries out and slaps its little hand against the glass, and that's enough to jolt Ran out of her frozen state. She throws herself forward and away from the mysterious woman, spinning to face her and moving her hand back to the grenades. "Who are you," she asks through gritted teeth, "and what do you want?"

  
A pause, followed by a low chuckle. "Already told you, but I guess I can say it again."

  
She disappears in another rush of chiral matter, appearing further out in the oil. Raising her hands in the air and clenching her fists, a chunk of debris gathers underneath her and lifts her up into the air. "My name," she says slowly and deliberately as she holds a hand to her heart, "is Moca Aoba. Emissary most eminent to the Extinction Entity herself. Former member of Roselia Express, current outlaw, rogue, and scoundrel. At your service~." A low, sweeping bow. "And as for what I want..." A finger points her way as her cloak flutters in the wind. "Well, she's standing right in front of me."

  
"Not interested," Ran growls, but before she can continue Yukina comes around her side and stretches an arm out to push her back. She moves back a tentative step but doesn't take her eyes off of the floating woman, slowly drifting down towards them--Moca Aoba. So these two know each other. She could have inferred that from the lack of hesitation on Yukina's part earlier but it's good to have things laid out on the table more clearly.

  
Yukina's voice is cold and more forceful than Ran's ever heard it before. The gun is steady in her hand. "Leave, Aoba. Or I will make you."

  
"Well, you're just no fun at all anymore," Moca drawls, moving her arms out in a dramatic shrug that tugs her cloak up behind her. "Too much time away from my lovely mug does make a person dull, I guess." She lets out a chuckle and taps the side of her head as if thinking. Then in a blur of motion her hand snaps out and grabs Yukina's wrist hard enough to make her gasp and drop the gun. Before it hits the ground Moca swipes it up, twirling it once before shoving it under her cloak and then finishing the motion with a chiding wag of her finger.

  
Yukina curses, but Moca's already wandering backwards away from them with her arms up behind her head. "You know what? Maybe I should find you two a playmate, get some of that anger out of your system." Sharp eyes blaze from under the ragged hood. _Bwoooosh._ An explosion of dust and a sudden absence.

  
Where did she go this time? Ran spins around, backing towards the center as Yukina steps closer and moves up against her back, covering her blind spot. Squinting and moving a hand up to shade her eyes, Ran searches.

  
Far out on the surface of the oil, she can just barely see Moca's hooded silhouette walking further away towards the center of it all. Arms outstretched, ropy black tendrils spill out from them to plunge deep into the liquid, and then Moca digs in her boots and heaves. One pull, two... and then the surface erupts in a massive spray as a hulking form is pulled up, kicking and screaming. It's like no BT she's ever seen. It stands three times as tall as a human on four thick legs, its entire body made of oily tentacles constantly in motion twisting around each other to make a creature that by all rights should not exist.

  
Its face is that of a lion painted by a mad artist and it wears a shifting golden mask of its own full of sharp teeth. Glowing eyes find Ran and Yukina. That awful mouth opens to release its roaring cry-- _"Hhhhhhhaaaaauuuuuuuughhhhhh!!"_ \--and Ran feels her heart stop for a moment.

  
"Do you still have those hematic grenades?" Yukina says in a hushed voice. Ran gathers herself enough to nod and Yukina pulls out her umbrella. "I'll do my best to distract the creature," she says as she flicks a cryptobiote into her mouth and bites down on it before swallowing quickly, "just hit it with as many as you can."

  
"Are you--?" Ran starts to say, but she cuts herself off when Yukina gives her a sharp look. Biting her tongue, she nods and furrows her brow. And with that, Yukina turns her steely gaze back to the creature before them and disappears.

  
Moca's nowhere to be seen now. Probably watching over them all from somewhere hidden and laughing at their fading pride. Ran reaches down to grab the case of grenades, flipping it open and grabbing one with trembling fingers. She steps out into the oil and takes a quick look down at her BB.

  
She takes a deep breath as timefall rain pelts her hood.

  
And then Ran takes a flying leap forwards, sending herself forward with all the momentum she can manage. Running is easier than it was earlier--the lack of cargo makes a hell of a difference--but thick oil isn't exactly conductive to it so she does her best to make sure as many footsteps as possible land on chunks of debris, rock and concrete and brick floating up to the surface just in time for her to use them to keep moving. The beast stands tall far ahead of her, swiping at a threat she can barely see. Yukina is flitting from place to place inside and out of its range like a hummingbird and sending up sprays of oil wherever her boots skid along the ground.

  
Ran hurtles forward towards a huge piece of an old building, half a rooftop swallowed up and regurgitated. She finds footholds in loose broken railings and clambers up the side recklessly to give herself some sort of a vantage point. Even here, the creature is still far taller than her, but it's an easier target.

  
She draws back her right hand and narrows her eyes, mapping out a trajectory as quickly as she can in the chaos. And then with a heave that sends her whole body forward she hurls the grenade through the air.

  
It hits the broad side of her target with a red explosion, a burst of bloody mist that shoots out from the metal canister and sends the creature reeling to the side as part of its body is eaten away as if it were dipped in acid. Ran shoves her hand into the pack for another--hoping she can send it off before her opponent finds its footing--but no such luck, it's already howling and taking long, quick strides towards her. Fuck, fuck--she's gonna need to make a run for it.

  
Just as she's about to scramble for another sanctuary its head turns and its gaze abandons her, as Yukina stabs it in the side with the sharp tip of her umbrella. A roar of pain and fury and it swipes for her with a muscular front paw covered in hooked claws. She disappears at the last moment, showing up on its other side to needle it again. Ran takes a moment to breathe, but only a moment. Yukina's paying for it.

  
It's leaping back and forth more now, even more aggressively searching for the annoyance jumping around its body. The radar arm beeps--she's just realizing now that at some point the BB sent it up. It's following the creature's movements with a jerky sort of accuracy that's more distracting than helpful. She ignores it and readies herself as quickly as she can.

  
Ran pulls her arm back and throws the next grenade as hard as possible--and it hits the ground harmlessly in a puff that quickly dissipates into the air, several feet away from her target as it leaps away. Shit.

  
She grabs another but this time its bright eyes are fully locked onto her. It charges, and Ran barely manages to leap from her perch before it slams into the rooftop's side and snaps its slavering jaw shut in the place where she was a moment before. She runs through the oil again, boots sloshing heavily, hoping for another position that's as good as the last but it seems like her luck is all out.

  
_"Hhhhhhaaaaaaaaaaaauuuuuuuughhhhhh!!"_ Another deafening roar, even worse up close and Ran has to struggle against the instinct to cover her ears and cower under the immense force.

  
The ground under her shakes as a clawed paw slams down in front of her, like a cat cornering a mouse. Ran throws herself to the side to avoid it and runs as it lunges and bites down on the place where she was just a moment earlier, sending oil in every direction as it moves. While it's rearing its head back up, she pulls a grenade out and twists around to toss--

  
Oh. It's faster than she thought.

  
Jet-black teeth glitter against the rain barely an inch away and a hot breath hits her head-on. In the split second before its jaw clamps shut around her Ran thinks of the Beach. She thinks of--

  
"Mitake!" a faint voice cries out, and then the beast jerks back as it stumbles to the side. Yukina digs the umbrella in as deep as she can into its leg and it howls in pain and fury. "Don't give up now," Yukina demands in a steady voice despite the obvious strain, "I won't allow it!"

  
Ran takes a step backwards and feels the grenade start to slip from her hand as her grip loosens. She holds it as tight as she can and grits her teeth. "Fuck you!" she yells to the creature for her own sake more than anything, and throws it as hard as she can. It impacts the side of its head and explodes into mist that sends it reeling backwards and away, toppling over into the oil as half of its head is eaten away leaving a writhing crater behind.

  
Another grenade is already in her hand, the last one in the first pack. Before she can follow up it's already scrambled heavily to its feet. A paw arcs out towards Yukina but Ran doesn't pay it any mind as she readies her toss, Yukina will just teleport out of the way, so--

  
It slams into the other woman heavily, a glancing blow that sends her flying back into the oil as a claw cuts through her jacket like butter and leaves a shallow gash in her arm. Yukina cries out as she crumples back, forcing herself up into a crouching position and holding her wound with one hand. Ran doesn't understand. Why didn't she just...

  
...ah. 

  
It's so obvious. She hasn't seen Yukina pop a single cryptobiote through the entire fight so far, and from her shallow breaths and the paleness of her face she must have been out before they even started. With all the jumps she's been making it's a miracle the other woman is even still standing.

  
Anger flares up in her chest. Idiot! Why risk herself in that state for Ran's sake!?

  
Yukina's pushing herself to her feet but her face betrays the scale of the struggle she's going through. Ran clenches her hand into a fist and shouts to her, "Get out of here, dumbass! If you can't jump anymore you're a liability!"

  
Between them, the creature lets out another rumbling cry that shakes the earth beneath their feet. _"Hhhhhhaaaaaaaauuughhh!!"_ It thrashes, stomping the ground seemingly at random and searching with its remaining eye. The rain turns its glow into a murky streak of gold that shifts rapidly with every sweeping movement.

  
How's she supposed to do this? Even with backup and a constant distraction she's been caught dead to rights as BT food at least twice now. Ran feels her anger melt into a needling fear that courses through her veins, building as the creature spots her. She takes a deep breath and crouches, waiting to see where it'll come at her from so she can juke it out. That's her only hope of not getting stomped or sliced or bitten to death in the first minute of this fight. All she needs is to get it right. The ground shakes as her enemy backs up and prepares to charge, pawing the ground and leaving long claw marks in the earth that quickly fill with oil.

  
The radar arm on her shoulder jerks to the right, so fast it nearly hits Ran in the head. Below her the BB lets out an insistent noise--not now, Ran thinks angrily, she's concentrating--but before she can refocus the creature moves in a swift lunging motion, paws slamming into the oil as it throws itself at her, coming in on--

  
\--the right side, Ran realizes with only a second to spare before she digs her boots in and throws herself to the side, tumbling away as she feels the gust of wind kicked up by its swiping attack that so very nearly misses her. She stumbles back up from her roll as fast as she can. BB still won't shut up, its cries aren't stopping and neither is the beeping of the radar arm. 

  
As Ran watches the creature ready itself for another go--too fast for her to ready a grenade in time--she's starting to feel a little more willing to give the BB at least a fraction of her attention. Maybe it's the strain of the prolonged battle getting to her, but... didn't it just predict that thing's movements?

  
She shouldn't bet her life on a piece of equipment. It goes against everything her experience tells her--never entirely rely on a ladder, a climbing rope, a motorcycle, no matter how reliable it is it'll inevitably break down and leave you stranded. But as she spares the quickest glance down at the little insistent face staring at their mutual opponent across the oil field, she thinks that maybe she can stand to look at BB a little differently just this once. If she's wrong to do that she won't have long to regret it. The creature is already pawing the ground again.

  
Ran flips open the second case of grenades and readies one. If she misses any of these... she won't think about that. Focus. Adjust her stance. Keep half her attention on the subtle tells of the creature's movements and half on the radar arm, still opening and closing as it faces the thing like a mechanical sunflower. Its light reflects against the oil through the rain. Her grip is steady and her breathing is stable. She--

  
The radar arm swings around quickly to the left, creaking and straining as BB cries out for her to notice its warning. She does. Ran is ready.

  
She breaks out into a dead sprint at the same time the creature does, boots slamming against the earth in time with its massive footfalls, and just as they're about to meet in the center she throws herself off to the right. Its jaw slams shut in the space where she was, and the missed attack sends it off-balance. Now! Ran's arm is already swinging before she consciously knows it's time, and the grenade flies in a low arc to hit the creature's back leg and send it tumbling forward as it's melted away, oily remains slamming into the ground and dissolving into the blackness.

  
She can do this. Ran feels her lips pull back to expose white teeth, feeling like a monster herself. The adrenaline is coursing through her like an electric current. She can do this. She can take it down as long as BB tells her where it's headed. They're a single unit now.

  
The creature is limping, panting heavily through the gold mask as it stalks around her in a circle. Ran follows it with her second-to-last grenade readied by her side and waits for a heads-up. Come on, BB.

  
...Nothing. The arm isn't moving at all even though the creature is already rearing back. She looks down at BB, eyes wide, wondering if there's something wrong--autotoxemia? Oh, God, not now--but it's staring up at her silently as the arm stays still. Why isn't it giving her anything? What's it's game? A bloodcurdling roar echoes as the creature digs its claws into the ground and charges.

  
Ran freezes up, ready to take the chance and leap in a random direction, fight or flight instinct on overdrive--but before she does BB cries out to her, a gurgling insistence that she somehow understands. Stay still, it's telling her. And though every fiber of her body is screaming FUCK THAT, Ran listens. And she stands her ground as it rears up and--

  
\--slams its full weight into the ground hard right next to her, shaking the earth as it lands. It was a feint. It would have lunged in whatever direction she went in and crushed her into nothing.

  
Ran throws the grenade at point-blank range with a reflexive motion and hits its front leg. It howls loud enough that she hisses and covers her ears from the rumbling sound that echoes through her bones as its front paw is completely eaten away by the red mist. Immediately, she draws the final grenade from her pack and scrambles back, anticipating its next strike.

  
But that attack isn't coming. With half its body dissolved it can't even stand, it just thrashes around and sends up sprays of oil in a fit of pain and fury, unearthly screams continuing without end. _"Hhhhhhhhaaaaaaaaauuuuuuuuuuggghhhhhhhhh!!"_

  
Ran readies her throw. The fight's over, all she has to do is end it and put the monster out of its misery. An arcing toss through the air--and then the rest of its face is engulfed in mist as well, cutting off the horrible cry as its remaining limbs twitch one, twice, and then fall still. Silence replaces the sound of its howling.

  
Its body melts slowly, the writhing black tentacles turning back into oil that mixes with all the rest, indistinguishable now.

  
...

  
Her knees hit the ground hard as she fills her lungs with a deep, shuddering breath, eyes shut tight from exhaustion. She feels herself slowly fall over to the side and can't muster the energy to stop it. The rain is starting to let up now, and the oil is melting away in the wake of the creature's demise--by the time her head hits the ground she's met by grass instead of liquid.

  
A blue sky. It's beautiful when the rain finally clears up, that brief window through the gray to a world beyond. Ran's eyes struggle to focus as she stares up, still doing her best to keep her breathing steady.

  
"...!"

  
Yukina's voice from afar. She's yelling something.

  
Before Ran can make it out the sound is replaced by another, this one much less welcome. _Bwoooosh._ The grass flutters, footsteps follow along with the sound of fabric dragging along the ground. Clap. Clap. Clap. Gloved hands give her a slow, muffled round of applause, and then Moca Aoba leans over her to peer down from upside down with a smirk in her eyes though the mask still covers her mouth.

  
"Well done!" she says as Ran struggles to find the strength to stand, her limbs feeling like they're held down by sandbags. Moca crouches down. "Seriously, I'm impressed. I haven't seen anybody coordinate with a BB like that... ever, maybe." A low whistle. "Is it you that's special, though? Or the BB?"

  
Moca's eyes narrow. "I think I'll take a closer look, find out for myself. You don't mind, Porter, do you? It's just for curiosity's sake."

  
Before Ran can move Moca's arms dart out, roughly wrenching the BB's canister from her chest in one smooth motion. She can hear it crying out as the skull-faced woman tosses it up and down in her gloved hand like an oversized loaf of bread. Forcing her voice out through clenched teeth, Ran growls "Give them back!"

  
"Them? Interesting," Moca says before leaning in close to whisper the rest of her sentence in a voice that tapers off into a sarcastic, lilting whisper, "Wouldn't have taken you of all people to be the sort who gets attached to their BB."

  
_Bwoooosh._

  
She's alone.

  
The wind rustles the grass around her, tickling her face and drying out her eyes as she stares up into the blue. Ran holds up a weak fist towards the sky. And then she slams it into the ground as hard as she possibly can.


	3. Chapter 3

The cryptobiote floats in front of her face, little insect legs twitching as it twirls and bobs through the air. She watches it from her place on the bed, her own legs pulled up to her chest tight and held in place with one arm. The other reaches out and plucks the object of her idle concentration out of the air. She turns it around, forcing back her disgust. If she's going to get her strength up she's gonna need to choke it down sooner or later. Yukina makes it look so easy.

  
The expression on Yukina's face after the battle. Ran remembers that exhausted bitterness as clear as day, even if it's been nearly an hour since the oil vanished along with their attacker, and...

  
Ran throws the cryptobiote into her mouth and bites down, chewing it fast enough that she can't taste anything. She swallows and feels its effect come on quickly. The things really are as rejuvenating as people say, but that doesn't make it any more pleasant a process to eat one. She lets her head lean back and hit the wall behind her with a familiar impact, followed by an even more familiar sigh.

  
_WRRRuuUUAAH._ Her cuffs want her attention, but Ran knows who's calling. Maya probably wants to ask why her suit is suddenly no longer picking up the signals of a BB unit. She doesn't answer, just waits until the tone stops.

  
...

  
What should she be feeling right now?

  
Happy, relieved, accomplished. Proud of herself. She took down the biggest BT she's ever seen or even heard of, let's all give Ran a round of applause and a clap on the back--not too hard, now, she's still sore! But it all feels hollow. Ran clenches her hand tight to feel something and gets nothing out of it but the deep impressions of fingernails in her palm. It's not her victory, is it? She would have died once, twice, who even knows how many times over if not for her BB's refusal to give up. And in return, Ran just watched as that bastard waltzed right up and took them away.

  
Well, what did she expect? Ran's always been fucking fantastic at winning the battle just as she loses the war. She bites her lip and winces as the harsh tang of cryptobiote hits her tongue just a little behind schedule.

  
She's pathetic, isn't she?

  
_Bwoooosh._

  
"What do you want, Minato?" Ran asks before the other woman can say a word. She digs her fingers into the sheets of the bed and gathers them up.

  
Yukina watches her from the corner of the room, hands in the pockets of her jacket and not moving any closer as those cold eyes hold on Ran. "I spoke to Udagawa," she says flatly, "she says the repairs on the elevator should be done within the next two hours. No other major structural damage beyond some issues with the exterior wall, the rest is just cosmetic. The center won't be experiencing much downtime. So you'll be able to get back to your work as soon as C.I.R.C.L.E.S. can provide a replacement BB unit." Her expression is so calm, so unlike what Ran saw earlier. It pisses her off.

  
...A replacement BB, huh. Her instinct is to disregard the idea of it as violently as she can--but why? Even if her last one went above and beyond its function, it's still fundamentally a piece of equipment. A BB unit isn't a child.

  
The conflict must be showing on her face, or maybe in the way she's coming close to shredding her sheets. Yukina looks at her with the closest thing to pity Ran has seen on her in the time they've known each other. It's infuriating. "Mitake," she starts quietly, "I cannot claim to understand--"

  
"No, you can't." Ran glares back at her for a long moment as the silence lingers. Then in a quick movement she throws herself off the bed and onto her feet, stepping forward into Yukina's personal space. She reaches out to grab the other woman's collar-- _Bwoooosh_ \--and her hand closes on nothing. "Damn it, stop that!" she cries, turning to see Yukina on the other side of the room, a cryptobiote on the way from her hand to her mouth.

  
Yukina bites down and swallows it before she speaks. "I can tell you're upset."

  
The simple declaration makes Ran so impossibly mad that she somehow circles around to just being baffled. Her hands can't decide if they want to go slack at her sides or curl into fists. Her mouth opens but nothing comes out. Yukina waits for her patiently. That cool gaze doesn't change one bit.

  
Eventually, as the adrenaline drains with nothing to replace it, Ran finds her voice. It's low and husky. "Who the hell was she? You knew each other. She said she used to work for Roselia Express..."

  
"..." Yukina closes her eyes, looking like she anticipated the question but didn't prepare for it. She wanders to the glass case that takes up the side of the room opposite the bed, skimming her hand along the glass and observing the contents silently. Inside, Ran's equipment has been placed back on its racks and hooks waiting for her next expedition out into the world. The last panel is still broken, though the loose glass on the floor has already been cleaned up. Yukina's hand follows along the jagged edge slowly and deliberately.

  
"Moca Aoba is the one who sent the bomb into Middle Knot City," she mutters, her gaze not moving from the edge of the glass.

  
Ran doesn't reply. Yukina has more to say, she can tell. She just takes a step closer to the wall and leans on it, processing what she's just been told. The destruction of Middle Knot, all those lives lost in a single day... that was the same woman she just met? Her blood runs cold as ice.

  
"Have you ever seen a modern thermonuclear device?" Yukina asks quietly, a rhetorical question. "They've come quite a long way since the Stranding. The components might be hard to gather, but it's not impossible to build one yourself. With the technology available now they can be made incredibly compact, innocuous even. You could fit one inside a standard cargo container." Her hand slips the slightest bit and a thin line of red runs down her pale finger.

  
Yukina's eyes find her again, and her next words are said in a voice so devoid of emotion it grasps Ran's heart and rips it from her chest. "Moca Aoba sent the bomb into Middle Knot City. But I'm the fool who made the delivery."

  
"...Minato, I..." Ran lets out before stopping herself as Yukina's eyes narrow.

  
"You understand my extreme reaction now, don't you?" The other woman turns, spinning away from Ran's wide eyes and holding her hand up to wipe the blood from it. She takes a step away towards the door, but doesn't cross the threshold. "She's not someone to be trifled with. Or someone who cares one bit for anything other than herself and her own sick desires. Aoba came to kill me, to wrap up a loose end. I don't doubt that for a second." Yukina takes in a long breath. "I suppose I should thank you for thwarting that plan. But take my advice and don't ever so much as think about her again after today."

  
"Bullshit."

  
Yukina stops. Ran watches her back straighten up through the haze of a heated glare, and before the other woman can respond she's stomping her way across the room to grab her collar all but shove her up against the wall. No jumping away this time, the abruptness of the assault makes sure of that. She stares down at Ran with surprise on her face and Ran suppresses a little twinge of triumph. It came to this, but she finally caught Yukina off guard. "That's bullshit. She's my problem as much as yours now--she even said she came for me, not you."

  
"But why--?" Yukina asks, blinking as she struggles to put the incompatible pieces together. Ran's grip tightens by the moment.

  
"I don't know. I don't really care. But she came for me and I think she got what she was looking for." Ran moves away half a step, gives Yukina a little room to breathe as she moves her other hand up to roughly rub her eyes and run her fingers through her hair. "I can't... I can't accept this. She needs to pay for all of this somehow."

  
Yukina's expression changes from confusion to an emotionless void, betraying nothing except the slightest hint of pained understanding that comes through in the furrow of her brow. "Revenge is never a good deal, Mitake."

  
"Big talk for someone who just tried to shoot her in the head!"

  
A sharp intake of breath. Yukina holds her tongue, all that stubborn confidence momentarily lost as Ran breathes heavily, teeth gritted. She continues with her plan in the opening she's made for herself. It's not a very complicated one, or one that sounds as good out loud as it does in her head. "You can send me to them, right? You have to."

  
"I won't--"

  
"But you can." Ran closes the distance again, pushing her back into the corner aggressively. Yukina doesn't teleport out of the way, instead out of surprise or something else she allows Ran to retake her grip on the jacket and lean in close. "Can't you?"

  
Yukina holds her gaze. "...If you have a clear enough image of your BB--and I assume that you do--I could make an attempt to jump you to them, and by extension to Aoba. A blind jump like that would take quite a lot out of me, though. I don't believe I could follow you there afterward. And there are other risks involved as well." She pauses before speaking again as if reluctant to say it out loud. "But it's possible, yes."

  
"Then what are you waiting for?"

  
"Do you believe I'm willing to send you off to your doom just because you think you want it?" Yukina replies, a rare note of anger creeping into her tone, "I'm not that cold, Mitake. I've facilitated more than enough destruction and death on her behalf already."

  
"..." Ran stares into her eyes with all the defiance and fury she can muster up. Yukina doesn't look away. "You--!" she spits out, searching for an epithet that doesn't come, and with the trailing end of that single pointless word she feels all the energy in her body flow out in a rush that only leaves behind the impossible heaviness of a human body. She tips forward, and Yukina lets out half a gasp before catching her shoulders.

  
Ran lets herself lean into Yukina, face buried in her black jacket to conceal the way her face is twisting into a mask of confused emotion. "Please," she manages to say, and she feels the woman against her shift.

  
A concerned whisper. "...Mitake...?"

  
"I don't--" Ran cuts herself off, the words stumbling over each other to escape, "I can't just let it go. Not this time." Her hands clutch the jacket tightly. She exhales and it comes out wrong, rattling frustratingly, sending her further into Yukina's shoulder. "I'm so fucking tired of letting the world get worse. Of letting everything good get taken away piece by piece... please, Minato. Let me do something."

  
Her voice trails off into nothing. For a moment, there's silence.

  
"...Stand up, Mitake."

  
Ran feels the words echo in her skull and forces her eyes open, letting go of Yukina as carefully as she can and doing her best to back away without leaning forward again. Looking up with minute movements she finds Yukina's eyes staring through her again. "If your conviction is this strong, then I suppose I have... no choice, do I?" She takes a long breath before pulling out another cryptobiote. Her jaw clamps down hard on it with an audible sound. "Prepare your things. If you want to catch up to them we'll need to do this as soon as possible."

  
"Minato..." Ran mumbles, but Yukina cuts her off with a sharp glance before she can embarrass herself any further.

  
"Ready yourself quickly, before I come to my senses."

  
It doesn't take long. Ran finds everything she needs in her room--extra blood packs and a flask, a bola gun, one final case of hematic grenades in case her target pulls another giant BT out of her ass. She'll travel as light as possible. Yukina leans against the wall in the corner, watching her as she works with her arms crossed over her chest. Any other day it would be aggravating, but Ran's feelings on the other woman are even more complicated than usual right now so she just avoids looking her way until she's done.

  
Ran adjusts the straps of her pack as she approaches, boots hitting the ground in a muted tempo before stopping in front of where Yukina stands waiting. "I'm ready to jump. Send me to them and I'll finish it."

  
Yukina nods. Without a word, she slips her gloves off before reaching out and putting a hand on either side of Ran's head gently. Ran closes her eyes at the sensation, slender fingers brushing over her ears and her hair. "Not gonna say 'good luck' or anything?" Ran asks, a bit of the usual bite coming back to the forefront of her words.

  
"Do you need luck?" Yukina asks. Ran doesn't answer.

  
"Imagine your BB. Picture them in your mind, create an image as best you can with every detail you remember." It's there right away, almost effortlessly. Its face floats in Ran's mind unbound. She remembers looking down at it as it giggles over nothing, making camp out in the mountains and throwing an arm over its canister from some protective instinct. She remembers walking in a field. Above them, they saw it together. That nameless bird.

  
"There it is," Yukina whispers, and then--

  
_Bwoooosh._

  
\--the world changes around her.

  
Waves lap at the edge of the sand slowly in a steady rhythm. This is the sound Ran hears first. Her eyes open wide, scanning the area, and she quickly realizes that this isn't the Beach.

  
It's just a beach.

  
The shoreline stretches out into the distance and only ends at the edge of the horizon where it's broken by mountains that stretch high into the clouds. Her boots sink into the sand with every step as she walks along it, desperately searching--there's nobody and nothing here that she can see yet, but it's far too early to doubt Yukina's abilities. The sun is low in the sky over the water. It casts its red and orange rays over the clouds above.

  
The wind howls as it flows over the ocean and around Ran to reach land. She struggles to stay upright as it grows stronger. Reaching a hand up to shade her eyes she keeps searching. Moca Aoba is here. But where the hell is she hiding?

  
Why are they even here, of all possible places, anyway... Ran isn't sure what she expected--maybe some sort of concrete fortress, or on the other end of things an innocuous hidey-hole or cave for her enemy to skulk around inside when not busy committing atrocities--but it was certainly something more imposing than a simple beach. Ran grits her teeth and keeps her gaze sharp. 

  
Her boots crunch in the sand as she moves. It's an upgrade from the oil, sure, but still not ideal for running or fighting. She stops for a moment to squint out into the distance for any signs of movement.

  
And then she realizes the sound of boots in the sand hasn't stopped, and every muscle in her body tenses up at once.

  
"Welcome, welcome~," the presence behind her says before she can turn around. "I wasn't sure if you were coming! Proving me wrong again... it's always a fun time with you around, Porter." Moca stands at ease, hands in the pockets of her cloak and chin tipped up jauntily. "Call it Stage Two. You pass with flying colors." As she moves her arms out in mock celebration the cloak shifts, revealing a flash of orange underneath on her chest. Ran's blood pumps heavily in her ears.

  
"Give me back the BB," she says in a low voice. The ghost opposite her looks almost disappointed at the emotionless demand. Ran takes a step forward towards her, expecting her to jump away at any moment but she doesn't. The closer Ran gets, the clearer those gray eyes are over the glint of the mask.

  
"Is that reeeeeally the reason you came? Not just for me?" Moca sounds almost whiny, an affectation that grates on Ran so hard she can hear the blood pumping in her ears. "I haven't done enough to make you hate me yet?" She straightens up, the act over, and her voice shifts back to a mocking drawl. "Really, I figure you'd understand that sort of feeling better than anybody. You've probably thought just that sort of thing about ol' Yuki yourself, haven't you--"

  
Ran's fist flies out with a heavy swing of her shoulder and punches through a cloud of gold chiral matter as Moca vanishes out of its trajectory. She pivots, finding her opponent shrugging to the left. "Rude! I wasn't--"

  
Bolas shoot out from the gun clenched in Ran's other hand, fired from the hip with decent accuracy and they almost hit Moca before she teleports out of the way again. "--done. Whoof, you're wearing me out already!" Moca struts around her as Ran shifts to follow her movements, the hairs on the back of her neck standing up. "Good thing I don't need help from some bugs to make my jumps. I've got a better connection to the other side than she does."

  
Lunging, Ran goes for another punch. It comes so close to connecting she can almost feel the metallic teeth of her mask against her knuckles but again, only air is waiting for her. She lets out a frustrated growl--and then feels a hand grab her by the folded hood of her jumpsuit and slam her forward into the ground.

  
Her face hits the sand roughly and Ran lets out a cry as Moca twists her arm behind her back and plucks the bola gun from her weakened grasp, tossing it out into the water with a heave and a distant splash of foam. "That's enough of that." Ran thrashes, but Moca holds her in place.

  
A knee digs into her back painfully. "Couldn't just take the hit and stay down, could you? You had to keep coming." Moca leans in close and whispers, "I don't know what she sees in you."

  
Ran throws herself to the side to slam against Moca's arm, knocking her off-balance enough to hook their arms together and surge up to flip the two of them over. Moca's back hits the sand hard and before she can catch her breath Ran is already drawing back another punch with her free hand, sending it down-- _Bwoooosh_ \--uselessly into the sand. But she anticipated this, she'd have to be an idiot not to, and by this point she knows Moca's game plan. Teleport behind her opponent and into their shadow, keep to their blind spot.

  
So even as her fist hits the sand she's already yanking the case of grenades off of her suit with her other arm, swinging it heavily in an arc and spinning to throw it as hard as she can straight behind her. A puff of chiral matter in just the place she expected it to be, and then--

  
"Gah!" The case slams against Moca's shoulder hard and sends her stumbling back. It plummets and falls open to release its contents out onto the sand. One grenade hits a rock and goes off, sending a plume of red mist into the air that chokes her and holds her up even further as Ran pushes herself up to her feet and sprints towards her momentarily disarmed foe.

  
Moca's already finding her footing again but the hood has slipped back to reveal short silver hair underneath, now stained with red. Her eyes are easier to see now and they're wide with genuine surprise. Ran digs her heels into the ground and throws herself forward for another hit, knowing this is her one opportunity--but without even teleporting, Moca just whisks herself to the side and out of the way, using the momentum from her near-fall in her favor. Shit, Ran can't move fast enough to block the hit--

  
...But Moca doesn't go for a hit of her own. Instead, she starts applauding.

  
Ran wheels back and stares at her, panting hard as sweat rolls down her neck. Clap. Clap. Clap. Then a long whistle follows as the wind blows that silver hair to the side, fluttering wildly. "You actually got a hit in, that's great. Real good showing from the friendly neighborhood Porter. I'm impressed~."

  
Moca reaches up and slowly wraps her hand around her mask. "I think we can move on to Stage 3, then. Enough playing around for now."

  
Click. The mask comes off, revealing a sideways grin underneath. Moca looks so normal without the cloak or the skeleton's teeth covering her face. Almost like a normal person. But there's something in those eyes that makes it easy to remember who she is. "So... all masks off." She uses the jaw to hook around the front of her cloak, pulling it back with a dramatic whisk and letting it fly around to her back for the wind to yank it the rest of the way around.

  
Ran feels something in her chest contract tightly.

  
Her BB is right there attached to Moca's torso, like it's hers. She can faintly hear it crying even from here and the weak sound makes Ran shudder with anger. "You've got something that isn't yours, Aoba. Give it back."

  
Moca leers at her with her hands on her hips. "Sure, gotcha~." A hand darts into the pocket of her cloak and pulls something out, flicking around to toss it to Ran through the air. She reaches up to grab it and only realizes what it is once it's in her hand, heavy despite its small size. "Wonder where Yuki got that cute little pistol from," Moca asks with a finger tapping her chin, "it's not like there's a lot left these days. Maybe she went through the same buyer my boys did." A shrug. "Who knows, really?"

  
The gun feels wrong in her hand, even through the glove the metal feels malignant. Ran's never held a real gun--a lethal gun--even once before. Let alone shot one. Her gaze moves from it back up to Moca, the shock bleeding through onto her face. "Why are you just giving me this?"

  
"Because I want you..." Moca says, reaching her arms out wide with that smirk on her face growing, "...to make a decision today. I wanna know who you are, Ran Porter. So let me spell out the whole situation. An informed choice is what I'm looking for." A hand curls into a fist that taps the glass of the BB's canister like it's a fishbowl. A terrified cry is the result and Ran bites down on her tongue so hard she tastes metal in the back of her throat. "BB's not lookin' too hot right now! All that stress buildup, it's not good for the baby. Autotoxemia is a hell of a thing... and we're a hell of a long way away from the closest distro center." Moca feigns worry, turning the grin into an exaggerated frown. "I fear the poor little thing wouldn't make it back."

  
"Fuck you!" Ran spits out, and despite her feelings towards it she raises the gun and points it at Moca. Her finger hovers over the trigger as she stares down the barrel. "Don't move an inch or I swear I'll finish what Minato started."

  
"That's a perfectly valid option, sure!" Moca says almost nonchalantly. "Wouldn't blame you in the slightest for blowing little ol' Moca all the way over to the other side. Maybe I'd even get to stick around as a BT--it could be a fun experiment in its own right, you know." She takes a step forward. Ran doesn't move. "But you know, our mutual pal BB here reeeeeeeally doesn't seem to care for gunshots all that much, does it? Could easily send it over the edge." She shrugs. "Or maybe not. I don't know much about these things, to be honest."

  
She reaches around the canister and roughly yanks it off, holding it up with the same arm that she's still carelessly dangling the mask with. "So. I'm suggesting a trade that benefits all three of us here today. You toss that awful gun into the ocean and let it sink allllll the way down. Glug, glug, glug. And then as a reward I give you the BB right before riding off into the sunset. A happy ending."

  
"Why would I trust you to do that?" Ran asks, index finger twitching as her grip on the gun tightens.

  
"Well, you probably shouldn't, of course." Moca's grin widens to let her teeth show. "That's the point of it. Call that option number one. Now, option two--you blast my head off and pray that it isn't the last straw for your BB. A more final solution even if it's a gamble." Moca pats the canister again. "But what's the harm of gambling over a piece of equipment, right?" She moves her arms around behind her back, clasping them together and closing her eyes as she tilts her head back, defenseless.

  
"I'll be waiting. Show me who you are, Ran Porter."

  
Her hands are shaking. The wind pushes against the gun and threatens to throw off her aim, she struggles to keep it steady. Ran can feel the tension in the air, thick and electric. Moca's not moving an inch. The smile on her face isn't changing. Somehow it seems like more of a mask than the skeleton's grimace did.

  
One flick of her finger and she'll never have to worry about Moca again. If she doesn't, then every moment--every time she goes out into the world, every time she lets herself relax and slip into unconsciousness--she'll have that fear at the back of her mind. And Yukina will still have a ghost over her shoulder for the rest of her life. She can end it right now and give them both peace.

  
All she has to do is pull the trigger.

  
...

  
She's carried cargo from one end of the country to the other, stacks and heaps and truckloads of endless weight piling up on Ran's shoulders and holding her down. Moving mountains is her trade, her job, it's the one damn thing she knows how to do.

  
But the gun is too heavy.

  
Ran lets it fall slowly to her side, hating herself for every second of it. And then in a single movement she pulls it back and throws it with all of her strength out into the water. It hits the surface and sinks quickly. Moca hears the splash and her eyes flutter back open, staring Ran's way with satisfaction on her face.

  
"Interesting~," she says, and then disappears--leaving the BB's canister in a cloud of chiral matter, plummeting to the ground. Ran's eyes widen as she leaps forward, slamming into the sand and scraping her elbows to reach out out as quickly as she can before the metal and glass contraption hits her forearms. The weight of it makes her let out a gasp, but it doesn't matter. Inside, BB is wailing, little arms wrapped around themselves tightly. Ran twists herself up into a sitting position.

  
Desperately, she starts rocking the canister side to side, muttering soft nonsense to them to try and calm them down from their growing panic but if it's working she can't tell. The overwhelmed sobs continue.

  
"I'll leave you two to work things out," whispers the voice on the wind behind her. "Nice meeting you, Ran~."

  
_Bwoooosh._

  
How do BBs work? How do babies work? Ran stares down at the little face before her and realizes she has no damn clue what to do. She has to calm it down soon or--there's no way of telling how close the onset of autotoxemia is. Their cries are starting to quiet down, but is that good or does it mean they're drifting away!? Ran rocks the canister faster. Their eyes are closed now and the sound of crying is so muted she can barely hear it.

  
Ran leans forward and lets her head rest against the glass as the last of her energy starts to slip away. She should have expected this, she shouldn't have gotten attached in the first place. Idiot. Her breaths fog up the canister's display, long and loud. Fucking idiot. She has nobody to blame for this but herself.

  
...

  
There's a song somewhere far, far in the back of Ran's mind.

  
She can't put a name to it, it's a long-faded memory, but she remembers the tune and some of the words. Anything's worth trying. Her lips part to whisper it softly, rocking BB in her arms as gently as she can.

  
_"See the sunset, the day is ending. Let that yawn out, there's no pretending..."_

  
Ran's eyes are closed so tight it hurts, she can't bear to open them. Her voice is cracking with every verse but she keeps singing. _"I will hold you, and protect you. So let love warm you... 'till the morning. I'll stay with you, by your side... close your tired eyes. I'll wait and soon, I'll see your smile..."_

  
Her voice is the only sound to be heard besides the steady rush of waves coming in only to draw back again.

  
_"...in our dream."_

  
Ran opens her eyes as her voice trails off, carried away by the wind. She doesn't want to look down. There's a stillness and a silence that follows the end of the song, an empty space that stretches on as she stares off past the beach and onto the water, into the last rays of the setting sun on the horizon.

  
The first thing she hears is a quiet, curious gurgle.

* * *

Five steps to the left, turn. Five steps to the right. The confines of the room are familiar enough for the motions to be unconscious to her by now, the walls hold her in place like a tomb. Yukina could leave at any moment, even if she's still too spent to jump she's got plenty of places to be; but instead she stays like a stray cat at the door waiting to be let inside. Five steps to the left, turn, five steps to the right. Her boots are going to wear a hole in the floor eventually.

  
It was Ran's decision. She refuses to hold any feelings of regret or guilt, regardless of the outcome Yukina's actions were nothing but a means to an end. Would you blame a gun for the trajectory of its shot? Oh, she wishes such thoughts were more than surface level.

  
Five steps to the left. Her reflection against the glass follows her in lock-step, perfectly disciplined. Turn. Five steps to the right. Don't look at Ran's things on the shelf.

  
Five steps-- _WRRRuuUUAAH._

  
Yukina has never answered a call so quickly, not even when Roselia Express's westward expansion was on the line. "Mitake," she says into the receiver without a fraction of the emotion she feels bared by the tone of her voice, "what's the situation?"

  
She listens. As she does, her face does not change. But her arm slips from its place at her side up to her face, covering her eyes. "...I see. I'm glad." Her hand falls away, moves over her chest where her heart is racing, it feels strange. "And what of..." Her brow furrows. "...Ah. No, keep going." Her reflection stares back at her as the voice on the other end continues, and her heartbeat slowly starts to force itself back into a sense of normalcy. All things at their proper pace. No time to get overwhelmed. "...Understood. Thank you for updating me, Mitake. And..."

  
A long pause.

  
"...nothing. Safe travels."

  
The call cuts off a moment later, a simple tone letting her know it's over for the moment. Yukina stands in the center of the room and lets out a long breath. There's still a slight trace of blood on the edge of the shattered glass, she realizes it when her gaze finally drifts from her own reflection. The tip of her finger still hurts even if the thin cut has sealed itself up.

  
Aoba's still out there somewhere, lurking and planning her next move. But that knowledge doesn't inspire the same instinctive fight-or-flight reaction it always has in the past. Maybe it's because she knows the next time her enemy comes knocking Yukina won't be alone.

  
"Mitake, I..." she mutters to the empty room. Her hand moves back up to her chest, not to the place over her heart this time but instead to the collar of her jacket, still bent. "Thank you."

* * *

The Beach is a welcome sight, as is her lady's back. The red fabric of the dress is light against her shoulders and perfectly still. There's no breeze now--it only adds to the illusion that she's faced with a photograph or a piece of artwork, that perfect scene of Chisato Shirasagi framed against a rolling ocean at dusk. A frozen moment in time captured just for her to live inside. Moca would gladly stay and watch forever. But as if bewitched she approaches, despite herself. Moca won't keep her waiting.

  
"Heyyyyyy, babe. Job's done," she says as she approaches, without any sort of reaction from Chisato. Her hands find each other and she interlocks her fingers, stretching them out to crack all of her tired joints one by one. "She's interesting. I think I get why you wanted me to check her out."

  
A lilting voice, almost teasing in its sharpness. "You like her?"

  
"..." The mask feels stifling but she doesn't remove it, not yet. "Worried I'm gonna run off with some pretty girl? I know you'd get lonely all alone out here without me." She twists the tone of that last statement enough that it can be taken as a joke.

  
In response a quiet laugh sends a bolt through her heart. She feels a little bolder after it's run its course, enough to take a few steps closer across the sand. Chisato looks back slowly as a cool breeze starts to kick up again--it blows her long hair to the side to reveal the glint of a violet eye staring back, its owner ready to take Moca by the hand and drown her in the depths. "Welcome back, Moca Aoba."

  
The Extinction Entity beckons, and Moca can do nothing but follow.

* * *

There's so much green, even in the darkness. The grassy expanse she's met with is vast and open but not as flat as the field she encountered before, instead this area is dotted with rolling hills and cut through by criss-crossed streams that lead out from the ocean behind her further into the land, where larger currents and lakes lie to take in their excess. Overhead, she can see the first stars begin to show themselves and lend their light to that of the moon, illuminating the world before her just enough for her to navigate it without difficulty.

  
Ran lets out a long breath that lingers in the cool evening air and rests a hand on BB's canister. The glass is warm to the touch even through her glove, and after a moment she feels a tiny vibration through it, the sensation of BB's little hand tapping against the other side. A giggle. She can't help but give them a weary smile back, looking down at that peaceful face.

  
Her gaze moves back up and she squints as she focuses on the snow-capped mountain range in the distance to the east. It looks familiar, just reversed... meaning she's looking at it from the opposite side compared to her usual routes. It's gonna be a long, hard trip back. But at least she knows where she is. She can make it to the nearest distribution center within a few days.

  
"Alright, you ready to head out, BB?" she asks, a genuine question. They've both been through a lot today. She doesn't want to push BB any further than necessary. But her worries are for nothing, judging by the immediate gurgling response.

  
Ran laughs. It doesn't sound quite right and it's a little raspy but it works. Partway through, she realizes something.

  
"BB..." she says, her lip curling back a little as the word comes out, "...that's not a name." Looking down at the baby's curious expression, the feeling in her chest only grows stronger. It's the discomfort that comes from realizing just how unfair a situation is. Ran decides to push back against it. Even if she's been beaten down the spirit of defiance is always in her blood, and it's showing itself more and more these days. "You deserve a name. Do you want a name?"

  
The baby gives her an honest-to-God nod and a smile and it's settled. But she's never named anybody before. It's a hell of a responsibility to shoulder. Ran thinks back as hard as she can on the things she associates with them, what image would best define them...

  
...A bird.

  
Brown, with a speckled white chest, whirling and wheeling up above and flying free through the world against all odds. Ran remembers its name now. The bird they saw was a thrush.

  
"I'll name you--"

  
**STAY DOWN**  
A Strandori AU

RAN MITAKE...........................SAM PORTER BRIDGES  
YUKINA MINATO..........................................FRAGILE  
MOCA AOBA...............................HIGGS MONAGHAN  
CHISATO SHIRASAGI......................................AMELIE  
MAYA YAMATO........................................DEADMAN  
TOMOE UDAGAWA.........DISTRO CENTER OPERATOR

TSUGUMI HAZAWA...............................................BB

**Author's Note:**

> huge thanks to shiny (TheShinySword) for beta reading and letting me know whenever something made no sense without prior knowledge of the game! go read tokyo incidents right now, especially if you want to know where mocachisa came from.
> 
> thanks so much for reading my most niche fic to date lol, hope you enjoyed it! comments are appreciated and i'm on twitter @tractioncities too
> 
> edit: now with absolutely gorgeous art of moca from cosq! PLEASE check it out [over here on twitter!](https://twitter.com/ImCosq/status/1298011449474908167)


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